Saying No to Submission

Celestial Junk:

A little known fact about Denmark is that during World Two, she stubbornly protected her Jewish population. Other occupied lands turned over their Jews and even assisted the Nazis, so much so, that Himmler commented about France that his own SS couldn't have done a better job. In the land of my ancestors, Czechoslovakia, the Slovaks in particular were ardent Jew-hunters.

But not the Danish; they continued their liberal human rights traditions even when faced with the full brutality of Adolf's Reich. Now, in 2008, it would seem that the tradition is continuing and the Danes provide a lonely voice in a sea of "progressive" milque-toast values. They understand full well the menace they (we) face.

What is so unique about their perspective and culture that they refuse to bow down to Islamists when so many Europeans are cowardly willing to appease for a mercurial peace?

In other words, why is it that the Danes have the steel whereas their pathetic neighbors do not?

Comments

[Ian Hamet]

Vikings don't submit, however many generations removed.

[David Boxenhorn]

Vikings don't submit, however many generations removed.

Just look across the Baltic at Norway and Sweden and you'll find plenty of submitting Vikings.

[Laura(southernxyl)]

In elementary school my daughter read Number the Stars, which is about a little Danish girl whose family helps a Jewish family escape to Sweden.

If I recall correctly, there's a little story in it about a Nazi soldier who sees a man riding down the street on a bicycle. He knows there's something special about this man because of the way people are acting, so he asks a little boy who it is. The boy replies that it's the king. The Nazi asks where his bodyguard is, and the boy replies that "all Denmark is his bodyguard".

[Cafe Alpha]

I don't think that once having had vikings has anything to do with it.

The vikings were raiders - robbers, really. The early Muslims would have been proud of them.

Just because they seem macho is no reason to imagine that they embodied any moral backbone.

[Pastorius]

Laura,
That is a cool story, and I think it might even be true.

Theo Van Gogh used to ride his bike through the streets of Copenhagen, until ...

[MikeT]

Denmark is a freer country than the rest of the Germanic states with a stronger classical liberal tradition. Most Americans with Germanic ancestry have theirs from Germany, but my Germanic blood is Danish. That's why I am quick to point out that the last name I legally adopted when my parents divorced is Danish, not German when people misspell it.

If I were going to take a stab at what sort of cultural fusion lead the Danish people to being still capable of standing up for themselves, it would be the synthesis of their ancient traditions with the classical liberal tradition that they began to adopt in the 19th century.